I'm sure I have to be the 1000th person to complain about fake-HID's, but it seems to be a growing trend and I notice it more now that my drive home is dark. There is a growing number of vehicles, even late-model cars and trucks, that are outfitted with the ridiculous "9000K HID bulbs" from China that people are getting on eBay or wherever. These aren't Silverstars or the upgraded bulbs from Canadian Tire - I have used those in the past and stood outside my vehicle to gauge their colour and brightness, and adjusted them properly to make sure the beam was inoffensive.
Production HID lights are almost always projector-beam style with a sharp cutoff and I almost never find them offending, even with their bright blue colour. But when these aftermarket bulbs are installed in a housing designed for a halogen bulb, the bright white/blue light splashes all over the place and it is nearly blinding in some applications. Of course it's not enough to install them just in the headlights, some of these wannabe-ballers install them in the fogs and drive with them on all the time too. The most frustrating thing is that I can see from the beam pattern that there is no more actual useful light hitting the road than if they had regular halogens, it just tints everything blue.
I wouldn't care if it didn't blind me - do what you want to your car - but if I can't see because of your LOW BEAMS I have an issue. If you are one of these people that wish you had bought a car with real HIDs but instead sourced them for $5 from China, expect a return of high beams when I pass you on the road. Be sensible and courteous, there's a lot of distractions on our roads today, you don't need to blind every car you pass in order that you can look like you've bought a more expensive car.
